TV Series from DVD encoding

[mykeparker]

hi all hope you can help.

I have an MVP/GB-PVR setup, all works lovely and cannot sayhow happy I am with it. I have my films on mpg and available over the MVP.

The thing is I want to put my DVD TV Series on the MVP, I know I could DVD-Shrink each episode to an .iso, then mount it in daeomn, and convert into mpg through GB-PVR. But its a very lengthy and boring process for a lot of tv programs.

Is there a way I can either get the whole DVD Image to play on the MVP (Prefereed method)

Or a quick way of converting each episode into a mpg, preferably with as little user input. I have a lot of episodes I want.

I appreciate any help on here, you all seem to know your stuff. THANK YOU!

[dazzyb2k3]

Check out the XDVD plugin. It'll do all you ask and more, you can even view the DVD live on the MVP. I was just playing around with it this weekend and it works great.

[JackTheMan18]

Are you not worried about running out of disk space?
For some reason, each TV show that I store seems to run about
30 minutes = 1 GB. (of mpeg2)
Even if I change the bitrate down to around 4000, the best that I seem to be able to do is
30 minutes = .7 GB (of mpeg2).
I am now investigating getting a much bigger hard disk!
I started with an empty 80GB, and I am now running to the store to get a 250GB.
Is there other formats that are less disk intensive (e.g. divx) that are just as easy to convert (back and forth)?

[smeghead]

No
30 mins = 1GB is about right
That's Right
Good - bigger hard disk, the more the better
80 GB is not really big enough
divx takes about a third to half the space of the mpeg but conversion takes a long time and lots of CPU

[groover km]

Personally, I started off with a 'grand vision' of everything - an entire dvd/video library - on the network, all accessible at the touch of a button. While it is possible, I soon found that for me it was just impractical; you will fill HDDs like they are going out of style and never have enough (I've already got nearly 60GB of music on there as it is, and we've got 100s of DVDs).

In the end, I decided for me that the convenience of pressing a button is not worth the $$$... easier to just get up and put the disk in.

Plus, if you have a lot of DivX/Xvid files, I recommend getting a player such as the Philips DVP642; for $60 this will play them natively from DVD or CD and as they are just file transfers burning takes no time.

Sometimes just coz something is possible doesn't mean it's practical.

Just my $0.02

[mykeparker]

WOW thanks for the speedy replies. Yeah I tried XDVD cannot get it working though. Tried all the soultions on the forums I can dind

As in disc space I've got 800GBs in the server and another 1TB Ethernet Network drive. So space is not a problem.

But thanks anyway, any more suggestions will be of great help!

Will give XDVD another go, would love it to work.

[groover km]

As in disc space I've got 800GBs in the server and another 1TB Ethernet Network drive. So space is not a problem.

Consider me impressed and envious!

[dazzyb2k3]

Might be worth trying to resolve your issues with XDVD - this would be exactly what you need.